The Supreme Court on Monday dismissed an appeal seeking the dissolution of the merger between Providus Bank Limited and Unity Bank Plc.
A five-member panel of the Supreme Court, in a unanimous judgement delivered by Justice Tijani Abubakar, dismissed the appeal seeking to upturn the judgement of the Court of Appeal, for lacking in merit.
The appellants, Suleiman Abubakar and Mohammed Goni Modu, who are customers and shareholders of the banks had appealed against the appellate court judgement.
They named Providus Bank, Unity Bank, PAC Capital Limited, Vetiva Advisory Services Limited, Lighthouse Capital Limited, Planet Capital Limited, and the Corporate Affairs Commission as first to seventh respondents.
They also listed the Federal Competition and Consumer Protection Commission, the Securities and Exchange Commission and the Central Bank of Nigeria as eighth to tenth respondents respectively in the appeal marked: SC/CV/132/2026.
The Supreme Court after dismissing the case of the appellants subsequently invoked its powers under Section 22 of the Supreme Court Act to directly sanction the merger between Providus Bank Limited and Unity Bank Plc.
The decision had accordingly brought respite to customers and shareholders of the banks as the judgement effectively draw the curtain over litigation surrounding the merger.
As part of efforts at complying with the recapitalisation policy of the Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN), Providus and Unity Banks had, in July 2025, approached the Federal High Court.
The two banks sought an order to convene separate meetings of their respective shareholders and directors for the purpose of considering and approving a scheme of merger between the duo.
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Following the order of the court, Providus and Unity Banks held separate meetings and approved the scheme of merger.
The meeting also led to the sanctioning of the scheme by the trial court.
Dissatisfied, the two appellants despite not being parties to the scheme of merger, approached the trial court seeking leave to bring an application as interested parties and for an order dissolving the merger of the two banks.
After granting leave for the appellants to be joined as interested party, the court then ordered that the appellants’ application would be determined first before the motion of the respondents.
Dissatisfied, the appellants (Abubakar and Modu), who are customers and shareholders of the affected banks, approached the Court of Appeal to challenge the decision of the trial court.
But the appellate court, however, dismissed their case on March 6, and ordered accelerated hearing and determination of the suit before the trial court with a costs against the appellants.
Not satisfied, the appellants again approached the apex court to upturn the order of the lower court.
However, the Supreme Court held that the appeal was unmeritorious and accordingly dismissed with a cost of N10 million each in favour of the respondents, who were 10 in number.
Subsequently, the panel invoked Section 22 of the Supreme Court Act to directly sanction the merger between Providus Bank Limited and Unity Bank, effectively bringing closure to all litigation surrounding the merger.
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